Got two rooms that used to have fire doors fitted as the house used to be a small b&b.
These have been removed and I now want to reform some doors. Frames are 45mm deep which is standard thickness of a fire door. Can I fit a 35mm normal (= cheaper) door in without packing out the frame or will it look rubbish? Otherwise will have to fork out the extra cash and refit fire doors.
What would need packing out? The front face will butt up against the frame, the rear face will be essentially recessed 10mm. Hinges and latches will need repositioning, but otherwise I don't see any problem.
Will it not catch on the rear side frame when opening if the rear side of the door is recessed? I'm no door fitting expert as you can probably tell!
Depends how the door frame is made. Sometimes the door is recessed into a rebate in the jamb, this type will need a strip of wood adding to move the door forward
The other type has a door stop strip inside the jamb. You should be able to get this off, clean it up and move it
The latch plate and hinges will need moving in either case (unless you're able to reuse the fire door hinges)
Will it not catch on the rear side frame when opening if the rear side of the door is recessed?
Yes indeed, but that's why I suggested you'd need to move the hinges. You might have to replace the hinges depending on their design. The hinge pin would need to sit proud of the rear of the door, enough so that, when open, the door is held away from the frame. If the pin is, say, 3mm proud, then you'll get a 6mm gap. How far out the pin needs to be will depend on the profile of your door frame. So long as the pin is at least in line with the corner of the frame, the door will clear the frame; if that makes sense!?
^^^ yeah that makes sense, thanks.